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Illinois high court: Comcast must reveal anonymous commenter

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6-18-15 Illinois: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. The Illinois Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court opinion ordering Comcast Cable Communications to identify a subscriber who posted an anonymous message suggesting a political candidate molests children. The court said Thursday that the internet service provider must identify the subscriber who commented on a 2011 article in the Freeport Journal Standard

Another Mass Murderer Arrested in a Traffic Stop

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If you were fleeing by car from a horrible crime, one for which you are likely to get the death penalty if caught, wouldn't you take scrupulous care to observe all traffic laws so you don't get stopped by the police?  Disregard for the law across the board seems to be such a pervasive character trait in some people that they can't, apparently. Robert Costa, Lindsey Bever, J. Freedom du Lac and Sari Horwitz report in the WaPo, "Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said [Dylann] Roof was arrested during a traffic stop in Shelby, N.C., just after 11 a.m., roughly 14 hours after officers responded to the shooting at Emanuel AME."

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Says SEC Should Have Considered Investor Sophistication and Access to Information When Assessing Materiality in State Street Case

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The Chamber of Commerce of the United States has filed an amicus brief in support of John Flannery’s and James Hopkins’ petitions for review of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order against them. Last December, the Commission found that the former State Street employees misled investors about the degree to which a State Street bond fund was invested in subprime securities. That decision overruled an initial decision by the SEC’s own Chief ALJ who had found in favor of the respondents. The Chamber of Commerce argues that the Commission applied the wrong legal standard when it determined that alleged misstatements and omissions in a PowerPoint presentation and two investor letters were material. The Chamber contends that “[u]nder circumstances like these—involving face-to-face transactions and sophisticated investors—courts have properly recognized what the Commission did not: because a ‘reasonable investor’ in…

Man Who Shot at Zimmerman Charged With Attempted Murder

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Matthew Apperson has been charged with attempted murder in Florida for shooting at George Zimmerman while Zimmerman was driving. Today, the State Attorney's Office in Sanford filed three charges against Apperson: attempted second-degree... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Thursday Open Thread

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Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Elements of a Traditional Wiretap

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The government intercepts the phone calls of suspect criminals through the use of a wiretap. Wiretaps are search warrants that allow a law enforcement agency to eavesdrop on phone calls or internet communications (E.g. cell, land line, Skype calls). Law enforcement agencies can only eavesdrop after they obtain a court order from a judge authorizing them to listen in on certain conversations. In order to obtain a court order, the officer must file an application with the court requesting authorization from the court to conduct a wiretap. The application is an essential part of the process and is subject to strict compliance with 18 U.S.C.A. § 2518. The first requirement is that the investigative or law enforcement officer making the application be identified along with the officer who authorized the application. This requirement is important for a couple of reasons. First, there are strict disclosure laws that prohibit liberal sharing of wiretaps. Officers cannot freely…

Court Reduces Arellano-Felix Life Sentence to 23.5 Years

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It was a big deal back in 2007 when Francisco Javier Arrellano-Felix was sentenced to life in prison. In 2014, the judge reduced it to 23.5 years. Everything was sealed until this week when the Judge released a 9 page order denying a request by... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article12488-live.html

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US v. Lizarraga-Tirado, No. 13-10530 (6-18-15)(Kozinski with Graber and Ponsor, Sr. D.J.). This is an interesting evidence issue: Is a Google map hearsay? The 9th holds "no". The appeal arises from a conviction from a 1326, illegal reentry. The defendant argued that he was waiting to cross, but was on the Mexican side of the border, at night, and the agents accidentally crossed the border to arrest him. The agents countered that they were in the U.S. One agent put in the GPS coordinates upon arrest with a handheld GPS device. At trial, a Google satellite image map was introduced, with the tack marking the spot. Surprisingly, this has never been an issue. It was here. The 9th found that neither the map nor the "tack" were hearsay. The analogy is to a photo. The map was an image; it made no assertion. The "tack" likewise was an image; it was not asserting anything. The map, image and tack could be attacked as erroneous, but that fell to…

//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article12489-live.html

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Seeboth v. Allenby, No. 12-17062 (6-18-15)(Graber with Kozinski and Ponsor, Sr. D.J.) Petitioners challenged the California Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) as facially unconstitutional in failing to set forth a time under the statute for a recommitment trial. The 9th held under AEDPA that the state acted reasonably in finding that the statute was not unconstitutional, and did not violate equal protection in treating sexual predators differently from mentally ill violent offenders.

Original Understanding, Confrontation, Shoveling Dirt, and Scraping Barnacles

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Eleven years ago, the US Supreme Court upended its jurisprudence of the Confrontation Clause in Crawford v. Washington.  Because the test for the statements to be excluded under that clause was so different from prior law and because the Court left so much to be defined, no one was really sure whether the new rule would be broader or narrower than the old one once the dust settled.  Would federal constitutional confrontation challenges (as distinguished from state-law evidentiary challenges under the hearsay rule) apply to more out-of-court statements or fewer?Today a six-Justice majority of the Supreme Court took a big step toward making Crawford a narrow rule, with a seventh Justice holding out for a position that is narrower still (I think).  Justice Scalia is apoplectic, but I think his criticisms are off base. Justice Scalia's opinion in Crawford was based squarely on fidelity to the original understanding of the Confrontation Clause.  The…

Supreme Court: What Children Tell Teachers Counts as Evidence in Child Abuse Cases

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In another key ruling issued by the Supreme Court this year, the justices unanimously agreed that what children tell their teachers can be used as evidence in child abuse cases. As our Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyers know, the case made its way to the Supreme Court after a man was convicted of beating his girlfriend's son; the defendant later argued that he was denied his right to confront his accuser because the trial court didn't make the boy testify in court. Despite not making him testify in court, statements the boy had made to his preschool teacher, allegedly describing the abuse, were permitted as evidence. As our lawyers know, and as the defendant's lawyers argued, this raised a serious 6th Amendment issue.

“The War on Drunk Driving Continues”…

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I’ve railed repeatedly in past posts about the unfairness and constitutional costs of MADD’s so-called "War on Drunk Driving".  See, for example, The Futility and Costs of the "War on Drunk Driving"; Another Weapon in the "War on Drunk Driving": Forced Catheterization; and A Closer Look at DUI Fatality Statistics.       I’ve also written over and over about the deficiencies in police officers’s abilities to accurately and fairly detect intoxication.   See The Police Officers as a Drunk Driving Witness. The following news account represents an excellent example of the costs of this ubiquitous "rush to judgment" — due partly to the pressures on cops to make DUI arrests, and partly on their inherent lack of training or common sense….. California Cop Busted for Beating Up Elderly Motorist Sacramento, CA.  June 19 – A jury on Wednesday ordered the California Highway…

Idaho State Police Release Public Document: June 4, 2015 Internal Memorandum Regarding Idaho Statesman Article

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE Teresa Baker Public Information Officer Headquarters 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 884-7122 Fax (208) 884-7087 For Immediate Release: 6/19/15 at 11:00 a.m. MERIDIAN - Idaho State Police Director Colonel Ralph Powell is releasing an internal memorandum clarifying facts and allegations against the Idaho State Police contained in recent media reports concerning an investigation of a crash involving a Payette County Sheriff's deputy. "All members of the Idaho State Police and I take allegations of misconduct very seriously," says Powell. "While our command staff cannot comment or answer questions on specific allegations contained in pending litigation, we have a duty to assure the public that their trust is not misplaced in our employees and our agency." The memorandum is a public document under Idaho's Public Records Act; however, there is one portion of the document that has been redacted as the…

Goodwin on Women and Mass Incarceration

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Michele Goodwin (University of California, Irvine School of Law) has posted Invisible Women: Mass Incarceration's Forgotten Casualties (Texas Law Review, Vol. 94, 2015/2016, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay fills an important gap in social and legal...

The Charleston Killer in State Court

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Yesterday in the comments to Bill's post, Doug Berman raised the question of whether the Charleston killer should be prosecuted in state or federal court.  I will repost my answer here:State. No question in my mind.Unlike the Boston Marathon, this was not a national and international event but rather a local church. Also, there is no reason, at this point, to believe this murderer's attack was any kind of terrorist attack on the United States as a nation, as Tsarnaev's was.There is no state action here, and any effect on interstate commerce is very tenuous. There was a time, half a century ago, when federal criminal law needed to be stretched to cover local cases of violence by individuals with no state action involved because state and local government was unable or unwilling to deliver justice and thus people were denied equal protection of the laws. Those days are long behind us.Events are moving right along.  Valerie Bauerlein reports in the WSJ:The…

Brian Williams Demoted, Will Return to MSNBC

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Brian Williams is returning to NBC -- but not as the anchor of the evening news. Instead, he will anchor breaking news and special reports on MSNBC. He appeared as a guest on the Today Show this morning with Matt Lauer. He said he's grateful for... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Not Driving a Car Doesn’t Protect You From DUI Charges in Florida

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As the Stanley Cup nears its end, it seems like an appropriate time to talk about Steven James Anderson. Nope, he’s not a little known hockey star. He’s the man who was arrested in February for Driving Under the Influence (DUI)…on a Zamboni. (It’s the machine that cleans resurfaces the ice at hockey rinks) The arrest and subsequent 9-day jail sentence occurred after Anderson crashed the machine into the sideboards while cleaning the ice during a youth hockey game. His blood alcohol level at the time of arrest was .314.    Though the incident occurred in North Dakota, it’s likely that Anderson could have been convicted under Florida law as well. Florida Statute § 316.193 defines the crime of DUI and the associated penalties. It occurs when a person “is driving or in actual control of a vehicle” and under the influence of alcohol, a chemical substance, or a controlled substance. For alcohol, a person is considered under…

Law Enforcement Says Dylann Roof Confessed

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Here come the leaks. Two unnamed law enforcement officials say Dylann Roof confessed to the Charleston shootings. South Carolina Ethical Rules: RULE 3.8: SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A PROSECUTOR [More...] The prosecutor in a criminal case... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Exoneree Edward Honaker Dies

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Edward Honaker, a DNA-based exoneree who served 10 years in prison in Virginia for a rape he did not commit, died earlier this week.  He was 65 years old. Called the “great poster child” of the innocence movement by the Executive Director of the Centurion Ministries, Kate Germond, Honaker and his case attracted national attention at a time when DNA testing, as a means to excluding individuals from crime scenes, was in its infancy, reports the Roanoke Times. Honaker had been convicted in 1985.  A young woman and her boyfriend said that Honaker had attacked them and then abducted and sexually assaulted the young woman in the back of his truck. A forensic expert claimed that a hair found on the woman's shorts was "consistent" with Honaker's hair. Honaker was sentenced to three life terms plus 24 years in prison, according to the Roanoke Times. But in 1994, the then-governor of Virginia, George Allen, pardoned Honaker after DNA tests,…

Elvy on Spousal Rape

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Stacy-Ann Elvy (New York Law School) has posted A Postcolonial Theory of Spousal Rape: The Caribbean and Beyond (Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Many postcolonial states in the...
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